Lately, NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has been woven into the sports world. First, he received support from Liberty guard Natasha Cloud and now is talking about the World Cup.
On Friday, Mamdani joined host Pablo Torre to express their outrage at the price of tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, per Pablo Torre Finds Out.
Alongside former FTC chairwoman Lina Khan, the three of them were puzzled by FIFA's $6,000 ticket pricing for the final and $3 billion in overall ticket sales.
“It's absurd!” Mamdani said. “It feels apolitical and bipartisan in its absurdity!” Toree said.
Then Mamdani made the case that “We've just normalized this!”
NYC mayoral candidate @ZohranKMamdani linked up with @PabloTorre + former FTC chair @linamkhan for real talk on FIFA's $6,000 "dynamic" ticket pricing at next year's World Cup.
"It's absurd!"
"It feels apolitical and bipartisan in its absurdity!"
"We've just normalized this!" pic.twitter.com/y5VNWhgSAh
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 19, 2025
Essentially, the pricing for the World Cup is as follows. The group stage matches are expected to cost around $60 before the final. Additionally, hospitality packages are expected to cost somewhere between $3,500 to $73,000 or more.
Nevertheless, FIFA is debuting a variable pricing system, where ticket prices will fluctuate based on the demand.
The final of the World Cup will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The overall cost of hosting such a grand event varies from country to country. In 2022, the tournament in Qatar cost roughly around $200 billion.
The cost was $16 billion in 2018 in Russia and $19.7 billion in Brazil in 2014.
Mamdani has made the World Cup a campaign priority
The affordability of tickets has become a focal point for Mamdani's campaign for NYC Mayor. Given that the tournament final will be held in his vicinity if he is elected, he's brought it up in multiple ways.
Last week, his campaign released a video of Mamdani playing soccer under the caption “Tell FIFA to put Game over Greed”
Specifically, Mamdami is advocating for implementing a cap on ticket resale prices and reserving 15% of tickets at a discounted rate for New York City residents. He argues that the setting ticket prices based on demand is a form of price gouging.
During the campaign, Mamdami has made the issue of affordability a focus. FIFA contends that their ticket pricing system is based on the market practices of each host nation. Additionally, the revenue generated from the ticket sales they say go back into helping to grow the game.
